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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“King”5 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
the reply to . Letters yet : Mrs. Pictorial ' interspect to publish Photos etc . , they have received confirmation from New Missouri representation of success as yet . TARANAKI HERALD, TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1954. # DAKOTA FOR AERIAL TOPDRESSING # NEW PLYMOUTH COMPANY'S PLAN An aerial top-dressing firm with headquarters in New Plymouth, Rural Aviation Limited, hopes to be the second company in New Zealand to use a Dakota for its operations. The managing-director of the company, Mr. Miles King, said in New Plymouth today that application had been made to the Air Services Licensing Authority to amend the company's air service licence to include one Dakota aircraft. The company had applied to operate the aircraft throughout the whole of its present licensed territory, which included the provinces of Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Wellington. Should the application be successful, the company would become the second in the Dominion to operate a large aircraft on aerial topdressing on a permanent basis. The other company, James Aviation Limited, Hamilton, had successfully applied for its licence about two months ago. It was proposed that under certain conditions the two Dakota aircraft, one from each company, would operate together and the loading equipment for each company had been designed for such a dual operation. If one field was wet, it was possible the companies would co-operate on the use of airfields to so keep the machines working continuously and economically. The aircraft would carry a load of 41 tons and would operate economically to an airline distance of about 40 miles, thus eliminating road haulage expenses. The proposed charges would rise from about 6 per ton at a distance of 15 miles to 9 per ton at 40 miles. The aircraft would carry 10,000 tons in a year's working. The servicing of the Dakota aircraft would be done in the company's extensive workshops at the Bell Block airport and the additional equipment needed for the complete overhaul of the engines would be installed. The machine would be purchased overseas at a total cost of about £25,000. ## ADEQUATE COVERAGE James Aviation's licence allowed the company to operate in the northern half of the North Island, and the companies considered their service would give adequate coverage for the potential of work offering for this type of aircraft. The operation of a large aircraft was not in any way derogatory to the light aircraft which had done and were doing an outstanding job for New Zealand's agricultural economics. The use of the large aircraft was, in fact, complementary to the light aircraft, in that its scope was restricted to relatively large holdings which, by nature of roading and terrain, were economically inaccessible to the smaller aircraft. For this reason, it was felt that the large aircraft would create a new and presently unsatisfied demand. Initial operations were proposed from Bell Block, Masterton and either Ohakea or Palmerston North. "The company feels that the purchase and operation of such an aircraft is a major step forward in an industry which has grown so rapidly since its inception four years ago and that it will service that group of the farming community which in the past has been unable to avail itself of the use of aircraft for economic reasons," concluded Mr. King. ## Pilots See Strange Objects in Sky Over East Taranaki Strange objects flying in the sky over eastern Taranaki at daybreak yesterday were seen by three Taranaki aerial topdressing pilots. At 6.50 a.m. yesterday the three men, Messrs. F. Ferrier, D. L. Falwasser and N. Nodder, all of New Plymouth, left Bell Block airport in a Cessna highwing monoplane for an airstrip at Tahora, where they were operating. They had not long left the field when all three saw three strange objects to the east in the direction of Taumärunul. They were then between Uruti and Tahora and flying at about 3000 feet. The sky was cloudless and visibility was excellent. The pilots at first could not believe their eyes. The three objects seemed to be hovering about 7000 feet above them, but as they were flying at about 135 miles per hour it was hard to estimate whether or not they were moving. They were oval in shape and looked like giant discs. They seemed to be red-orange in colour with a reddish flame coming from them. The pilots flew in the same direction for another three minutes and saw a number of other objects. It appeared to the men at this stage that the objects were flying in line-ahead formation. Suddenly all the objects climbed away steeply at great speed and disappeared. The three men are all experienced pilots and have been engaged in aerial top-dressing for four years. They are used to flying in the early morning and this is the first time that they have sighted any strange objects in the air. They know that there were none of their firm's planes in the area and they were not conventional aircraft. They have all seen the most modern aircraft flying in New Zealand today and many flying overseas and saw that these objects were unlike any of them.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.